Sony NEX-5N First Impression ~ Cosmo Techno

Last Friday I got my new toy, Sony NEX-5N and I must admit it's an impulsive purchase but it turns out to be good. :)

For all this time, I have been waiting for the new Olympus OM-D EM5 to come, of course the silver set since it has a more retro look. I never really laid my eyes on NEX series since it is of much more modern look and it lacks of physical controls. (NEX-7 has but it's way more expensive).

On another day, I was accompanying a good friend of mine to get a NEX-7. I was impressed by the small camera, it looks good in design and feels solid in hand. So I went back home and researched a bit on the Internet. NEX-5N seems a fit for my purposes. I have been looking for a wide/ultra-wide lens to bring along my summer trip. In the M43 system, the Olympus prime 12mm F2.0 is simply way too expensive and others like 9-18mm and 7-14mm from Panasonic are also not something affordable.

It happens that the Sony E-mount has the 16mm F2.8 pancake lens and it's much cheaper. S$299 on the Sony website, even lower when you get it from a camera shop. In addition, the price difference between NEX-5N single lens kit (18-55mm) and double lens kit (18-55mm & 16mm) is only S$100. So it looks like buying the double lens kit is the best deal and I went for it.

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↑This is how the camera set looks like. There is an external flash included in the box but I forgot to take it out since I rarely use flash..

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↑The backside of the camera, as I said there are not many controls on the camera. Fortunately, I can customize some keys to make the settings a bit more handy.

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↑There is a dedicated button for movie shooting though I do not shoot videos.

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↑18-55 kit lens on NEX-5N, looks like giant compared to the camera body.

The other reason I bought the NEX-5N is this ultra wide lens converter, VCL-ECU1, which can be mounted on the 16mm F2.8 with factor of 0.75, that is, focal length becomes 12mm (16mm in 35mm equivalent)! That is perfect for landscape and building shooting.

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↑The converter is very good in quality and comes with a nice case to carry around. The only bad thing is you can't put a UV filter since the surface is spherical.

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↑This is the final look after the converter is mounted on the 16mm pancake. The connection is very steady so you don't have to worry about it coming off during use.

Hands on experience

It is really small, and slightly lighter than my E-P3 but stills feels sturdy. Since my hands are not big either, I don't feel it's a huge problem about the tiny camera body.
Lacking of controls does add a bit of trouble when I take photos, especially in the default setting, there is no way that I can adjust ISO directly. I have to go two levels down to reach the ISO setting which is absurd. Luckily I can customize the right key to be as ISO setting.
Touch screen is good, but not very useful to be honest. I still prefer use buttons to navigate around. Especially the touch screen can only select the focus point but does not have the option to touch and snap.
High ISO performance is very impressive. APS-C sensor certainly has its edge over M4/3 (Please refer to my previous blog if you have no idea what I am talking about). ISO 1600 is totally usable compared to my E-P3, which produces much color noise at ISO 800.
The combination of 16mm and ultra wide lens converter is simply fantastic! It's a cheap solution of landscape shooting and the image quality is actually well above my expectation except the anti-flare isn't very good. Some sample pictures will be provided later.
Many add-on features like partial colors, sweep panorama and handheld night shot. They add more fun when shooting and also useful at the same time. Especially handheld night shot provides you the opportunity to take decent night photos even you are short of a tripod.

Below are some photos I took with NEX-5N and 16mm pancake + ultra wide lens converter.